[From the diaries by susanhu.]
Update [2005-10-11 14:18:23 by ATinNM]:
Yet more information coming in, via Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC Countdown newsletter:
In a “special report” tonight and tomorrow, Olbermannn will be going through the 13 false alerts that were oddly timed with political problems.
Yesterday New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police would be “slowly winding down” the intensity of subway patrols, after the target date cited in a federal warning about a possible terrorist attack passed without incident. See this.
As Pete Williams said in his report last night, those arrests in Iraq turned up nothing. “Law enforcement officials say today that investigations in the Iraqi city where three men were arrested last week, in response to a tip … turned up no evidence whatsoever of any plan to attack New York. That includes giving the three men lie detector tests, searching their computers, and checking their phone call records.”
Tonight… a postmortem on this latest terror threat, which officials at Homeland Security had said was of doubtful credibility.
And on Wednesday, Keith takes a closer look… As he said yesterday, “…we spoke of at least thirteen [13] coincidences of timing, between bad political news for the government, and a terror or terror-related event… We will be presenting a special report detailing those coincidences on Wednesday night’s edition.”
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CNN has a banner headline:
“Informant in Iraq admits information about a terror plot against New York subway was a hoax, sources tell CNN”
No details are available as of 9:45 MST.
Too funny. MORE below:
Update [2005-10-11 12:30:56 by ATinNM]:
All information from CNN
“Information that led to heightened security for the New York City transit system was a hoax, government sources said Tuesday.
The sources said an informant in Iraq who provided the tip had told investigators there was a terrorist plot involving New York’s subway system. That informant admitted he gave false information, the sources said.
Law enforcement sources said last week the person who passed along the New York tip also gave information that prompted a military operation in Iraq, which led to the arrests of three al Qaeda suspects in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad.
Government sources said the three men arrested in Iraq with suspected links to the possible plot had been interviewed and underwent lie detector tests showing they knew nothing about such a plan.”
As I responded to Colman. The importance of this is the fast debunking of the Bush administrations attempt to shore-up their polling numbers.